Improvement in pavements



A. BLANK.

Paveme nts.

N0.153,802. v Patented Aug. 4,1874.

ATTEST:

THE GRAPHIC C0.PN070-LITH39& 5! PARK PLAC UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALOIS BLANK, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

IMPROVEMENT IN PAVEMENTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 153,802., dated August4, 1874; application filed July 3, 1874.

To all whom it may concem:

Be it known that I, ALOIS BLANK, of St. Louis, in the county of St.Louis and State of Missouri, have invented a certain new and usefulImprovement in Street Pavements, of which the following is aspecification:

This improvement relates to the manner of forming the iron castings orsections, which are interlocked together to form the cells to receiveblocks of wood constituting the surface of the pavement. Each block hastwo upright sides and a bottom, which together form three sides of theopen-topped cell, the other sides being supplied by contiguous castings. The castings are connected or interlocked by rabbet-joints, so as tohold them in place.

In the drawings, Figure l is a top View of a portion of pavement. Fig. 2is a perspective view of one of the castings or sections. Fig. 3 is atop or plan view of two of the angular castings used at theintersections of streets, showing connection. Fig. 4 is a transversesection of a portion of pavement.

Each of the castings or sections A has a bottom plate, a, having aflange, I), set down below the plane of the bottom, the top of theflange being in the same plane as the under side of the bottom, asshown, thus forming a rabbet to receive the bottom corner 0 of thecontiguous casting. The bottom a has also an end flange, 01, similar tob, to receive the end corner 0 of the contiguous casting in the sameEach of the castings has an upright.

course. side, f, and end g. h h are rabbets, by which the uprightcorners of the castings are jointed together, as shown. it are orificesin the side,

end, and bottom, to lighten the castings and give an anchorage orhearing to the castings upon the foundation, and to the wooden blocks kin the castings. The blocks k are made to fit the inside of thecastings, and are, preferably, Inade to project upward above the tops ofthe castings, and placed with the grain of the wood vertical. The castsections are placed, as shown, with a short section, A, at the end ofeach alternate course, so that the joints in one course will be brokenby those of the next course.

The castings, at the intersections of streets, may have the bottom platea of triangular form, so that they will fit together, as shown inFig. 1. (See Fig. 3.)

I do not confine myself to any precise size in the castings. Indeed,this might differ, according to the character of traffic on the street.

I-Will state that the size adopted by me for the sections is as follows:Length, ten inches, height, four inches; width, two and one-half inches.The width of the blocks is such that the grooves between the blocks willbe such as to give a good hold for the horses feet.

The foundation should be good; but even this is not so necessary as itis for pavements that are not intimately interlocked.

I claim as my invention- The pavement formed of the blocks k andmetallicsections A, when the said sections are constructed with flanges b and dand rabbets h, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

ALOIS BLANK. Witnesses:

SAML. KNIGHT, ROBERT BURNS.

